


Little Things that Make You Smile

by AgentCoop



Category: Banana Fish (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Ash Lynx Lives, Ash Lynx and Okumura Eiji go to Japan, Canon endings be damned, M/M, Return to Izumo, Soulmates, recovery fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-28
Updated: 2019-01-28
Packaged: 2019-10-18 13:05:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 983
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17581391
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AgentCoop/pseuds/AgentCoop
Summary: I was going to just write a quick drabble about Eiji and Ash finally happy together in Japan...and then this happened.





	Little Things that Make You Smile

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you SO much for reading. Comments and kudos always appreciated ;)
> 
> Come find me on tumblr at [here!](https://iamagentcoop.tumblr.com/)

“I smell fish.”

Eiji erupts in laughter besides Ash and Ash glowers at him, fierce and golden in a stray beam of sunlight. “I’m sorry,” Eiji gasps, “but what on earth were you expecting? We are next to the ocean.”

“New York is next to an ocean. And it doesn’t smell like fish.”

“No,” Eiji agrees quickly. “No, New York smells like trash.”

“Hmmph.”

Ash turns his nose up to the sky and Eiji watches him, this familiar action both intimate and evocative of the weight of their past. A pang of sorrow shivers up his neck and despite the warmth of the late spring day, he hugs his arms to himself.

He wants this.

They both want this.

They’ve agreed upon the terms and the conditions and poured over the details. They sat together, back in a small hotel room in Brooklyn and as Ash lounged, cross legged on the floor, his wire frames perched haphazardly on the tip of his nose, ready to fall at any moment,

and as Eiji sprawled on his stomach atop the rough duvet cover and his legs kicked, back and forth, back and forth, forever the restless chaos of an athlete concluded,

there was a permeating scent of change that surrounded them, endless in it’s possibility.

There was a simple perfection to their joint chaos in Brooklyn. Here in Izumo, everything is imperfect.

Ash is harder now.

He’s escaped, he’s free, he’s been given the chance to fly, yet he’s aimless, drifing in lost potential. He’s bitter, and caustic now, and Eiji finds himself more silent than not, allowing Ash his moment, his day, his week, his year to grieve.

“What would you like to do?” His voice is polite. He’s always polite. He used to hate this about himself, his affect, and his perpetual desire to please. Ash loves it though. Ash has told him over and over what a relief it is to be _asked_. To be _considered_. To be _requested_ without the heaviness of owing something.

Eiji waits and watches as Ash frowns, threading his fingers through long golden strands.

It’s even longer now. Grown almost to his shoulders. It blows in the Izumo wind and Eiji wants to feel those perfect threads whisper across his cheek.

Instead he waits.

Long moments pass, and finally Ash speaks. “Take me to where it happened.”

A sourness churns in Eiji’s gut because he knows what Ash is asking, he knows how terribly he can still hurt with his words when he’s been cornered. Still he asks, “Where what happened?”

Ash sneaks a look up at him, jade eyes glinting. His mouth quirks up in a semblance of a sneer but Eiji knows this look. This is a mask like so many other masks. This one hides pain.

“Where everyone watched you fall and not get up again.”

The words are harsh. Each syllable resonates with in Eiji’s core, but he doesn’t flinch. He knows what to do with a cornered lynx.

“Alright,” Eiji says. “Alright, come with me.”

***

The bleachers are dusty and mishapen and overgrown, and tall weeds push their way through the cracks in the track pavement. They reach for something vital, though Eiji is unsure what. The stadium has been overshadowed by city development and the sun can’t find it’s way past the construction.

Even Izumo grows and expands.

Eiji’s quiet. He lets Ash wander, walking towards the middle of the track, and pausing for a moment. Eiji watches him bend down, and pick up something in the dirt. Ash studies the thing in his hand for a moment, then tosses it aside and Eiji can see the barest flash of a purple vernal flower.

Eiji sighs and walks towards him. The pavement is rough beneath his sneakers, but each step dredges up memories he’s long put to rest.

He doesn’t particularly want to be here. But for Ash, he’ll do anything.

When he steps up, Ash is looking at the sky.

“I’m not sure I can remember how to be normal,” he says, and Eiji puts a hand out, hovering just over his shoulder. “I’m not sure I can just change the person I was fated to be.”

His voice is rough, and Eiji knows then, knows why he wanted to come here. “We wake from death to return to life,” Eiji says.

Ash turns then, and eyes him for a moment. “A bit dramatic, even for you big brother.”

Eiji’s hand comes down then, no longer a whisper of a touch but a smack, and Ash yelps, jumping back with a small grin on his face.

“It’s a Japanese proverb you American fool. It means that we can move on from even the most terrible of situations to be reborn.”

“You don’t say,” Ash mouths, drily, and Eiji can feel a smile tugging at his own face as well.

There he is.

There is Aslan.

“Don’t ask if you don’t want to learn.”

Ash smacks Eiji then, hard across the back and Eiji stumbles, before falling onto the dusty ground. He’s not mad though. There’s nothing inherently vengeful about it. It’s touch and through touch he can feel Ash returning to himself.

He passes his fingers over the sharp weeds for a moment, letting them scratch and tear at his skin. He’s no less for leaving this behind. He’s no more for it. He’s merely different. Changed. A new thing.

“I’m hungry.”

Eiji looks up, and Ash is already walking back towards the bleachers, back towards where they came from. It’s a confident swagger and it’s full of conviction. But then he stops once, looks back, and slowly extends a hand.

Ash is a new thing now too.

Eiji stands up slowly, and dusts off his trousers. He kicks once at the weeds around them, watching puffs of seeds float into the air to regenerate, grow anew.

Then he follows.


End file.
